Koral, Elana Natalie2022-09-222022-09-222021https://hdl.handle.net/10539/33288A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law, and Management, University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management (Business and Executive Coaching), 2021This research study attempts to explore the effects of a transformational coaching intervention of six Franchise Managers (FMs), in one franchise organisation in South Africa. The objective was to explore perceptions of the Franchise Managers of personal growth, relationship changes with franchisees and the ripple effect in the organisation, with regards to team interactions and their relationship with their direct line managers. This study, using a qualitative research design, took place over a 10-week period. The coaching sessions were done over Zoom during the Covid-19 epidemic. The interviews of both Franchise Managers and their direct reports were done before and after the coaching intervention. These comprised of pre-intervention interviews, which were unstructured, followed by semi-structured interview for post-coaching interviews. These interviews were recording and transcribed where codes, categories and themes emerged for both the pre-and post-coaching interviews. The pre-and post-coaching interviews were linked after the intervention to ascertain whether the coaching did indeed have an effect on the FMs in their personal and professional lives. The criteria was based on qualitative feedback from the FMs regarding their view or perception of the success of the coaching. The main themes that emerged were: the importance of the coaching journey itself; personal and cognitive changes resulting from coaching; the importance of communication and the ability to handle conflict in franchisee relationships and how coaching may affect relationships between the Franchise Manager with colleagues and direct reports at Head Office level. The results reveal that transformational coaching, according to the perceptions of the Franchise Managers, resulted in a significant effect on their personal and professional lives. All the FMs saw improvements in communication with franchisees, colleagues. Most of the FMs felt the relationship with their direct managers improved, while some of their direct reports perceived this differently. The findings also reveal that the nature of the coaching and the coach’s approach were received positively by the FMs both directly and vicariously. The research also provides guidance to franchise organisations on how coaching can affect various parties in a franchise organisation as well as recommendations for future research. This research attempts to contribute to the literature in exploring the effect coaching has on the FM who holds a unique employment position, which is only found in a franchise organisation, wherein they report to two separate parties who are both owners of their own businesses. The aim is to understand if coaching will affect the well being of the FM and have a ripple effect on those around him/herenTransformational coachingFranchise ManagerPersonal growthRelationshipsJourneyFranchiseeCoachFranchisorSDG-8: Decent work and economic growthDisseretationUniversity of the Witswatersrand, Johannesburg